How To Build An Engaged Workforce

Much has been made of employee engagement in recent years, with study after study proving that engaged employees offer a huge boost to businesses. When employees are engaged, they’ve been proven to be more productive and efficient, as well as being less likely to leave their position prematurely. An engaged workforce means increased profits, enhanced creativity, and a workplace that is generally much happier and more enthusiastic than one which is packed with disengaged workers.

So how can you build an engaged workforce and reap all the rewards that come with it? Here are some top tips.

Develop an engagement culture

Engagement is not a passing trend or something that can be picked up and dropped every few months – and to voice this opinion could be to disengage employees even further. Engagement needs to be embedded into the very culture of your business in order to be effective. That requires a commitment from the top-down; managers, leaders and executives must be openly focused on improving engagement, supporting their employees and changing the culture of the business.

Learn how to measure engagement

Engagement is notoriously difficult to measure, and many companies fall into the trap of thinking that employee satisfaction and engagement are the same thing. Just because employees feel satisfied at work, doesn’t mean they’re necessarily engaged in their jobs. One of the best ways to measure engagement is to regularly distribute surveys for employees to fill in anonymously. This approach can provide a great deal of insight into the mind-set of your workforce. Questions or statements such as ‘My opinions are acknowledged and recognised in the workplace’, ‘My superiors seem to care about me as a person’ and Do you feel valued for your work?’ can provide vital feedback, which can then be acted upon.

Identify simple improvements

Employee engagement doesn’t happen overnight, but on the back of your employee engagement surveys, you may be able to identify small, simple actions that you can take to increase engagement. Not only will this help to kick-start your engagement culture, it will show employees that their thoughts and opinions can really shape the future of the business; something which will, in turn, increase their engagement.

Show appreciation

Employees who feel appreciated and acknowledged by their colleagues and superiors are more likely to feel engaged at work. Creating a positive work environment is vital in developing an engaged workforce, and you should also look at the ways in which you reward staff for their work. Incentive schemes, performance-related rewards and other forms of recognition can help send engagement soaring and help employees to flourish.

Want to get started developing your own employee engagement strategy? Perhaps you already have a strategy which needs some fine-tuning to achieve the very best results. Get in touch with the team at People Matters today to find out more about employee engagement and how it can help your business: [email protected]